Brief Introduction
Value: C$2.6 billion ($1.9 billion)
Location of oil field: 45 kilometres northeast of Fort McMurray, Alberta
Oil field reserves: 1.2 billion barrels
Estimate production of oil field: 75 kbd bitumen production
Start time: the fourth quarter of 2018 (delaying)
Aspen is an in situ oil sands development project, will include the first major commercial application of next-generation oil sands recovery technology designed to lower greenhouse gas emissions intensity and water use, while improving development economics.
On November 7, 2018, Imperial announced it had made a final investment decision to develop the Aspen project, located about 45 kilometres northeast of Fort McMurray, Alberta. The project, which is expected to produce about 75,000 barrels of bitumen per day.
Construction will begin in the fourth quarter of 2018 with first production expected in 2022. But Imperial Oil delays a C$2.6 billion ($1.9 billion) oil-sands project in Canada by at least a year as the nation’s energy industry grapples with a shortage of pipeline space and government-mandated production cuts on 3/17/2019.
Imperial Oil (100%) : Operator with 100% interest
Expected workload
Through the application of advanced solvent-assisted, steam-assisted gravity drainage technology at Aspen, Imperial is building on its recently announced commitment to reduce the greenhouse gas emission intensity of its operated oil sands facilities. In SAGD operations, pairs of stacked horizontal wells are drilled into the oil sands reservoir located deep underground. The bottom well, called the producer well, is drilled at the base of the bitumen reservoir. The top well, called the steam injector well, is drilled five metres above the lower well.
The project design of the proposed Aspen oil sands project includes the following facilities: steam generation, cogeneration, water treatment and recycling, bitumen treatment, sulphur recovery, multi-well production pads, steam delivery pipelines, product recovery pipelines, water source wells, wastewater disposal, construction and operations camp and other secondary infrastructure.